Auctions have been traditionally conducted in the physical presence of a number of persons interested in obtaining certain goods or services. Auctions are typically preceded by an offering, for example, through distribution of a catalog, such that the interested persons can pre-determine which goods or services appear interesting and the purchase price such person is willing to offer. Such auctions have the disadvantage of being slow and tedious, and not consistently directed to a good or service of interest. Additionally, many potential bidders are often precluded from participating in traditional auctions because physical presence is often advantageous or required.
Most recently, the advent of computer-based auctions has improved the traditional auction format by accelerating the bidding process, allowing buyers, sellers, bidders and service providers to electronically search and focus only on goods or services of interest, and allowing persons to participate in auctions from any location having a networked computer. Accordingly, users participating in online auctions can now compete for goods and services of interest from a convenient location during any convenient time of day, allowing online auctions to be available to a wider, more diverse population.
Unfortunately, however, the currently available auction formats require an expenditure of monetary currency in order to successfully compete for a particular good or service. Additionally, goods or services which are auctioned online typically command high monetary currency values. Thus, these auctions are exclusive of those persons having a lack of, or limited amount of, monetary currency.